Ever been driving and realized you have a story way too long to type out? Or maybe you just want your mom to hear the excitement in your voice when you tell her the news? Honestly, learning how to send a voice message on iPhone is one of those things that seems obvious until you’re staring at the screen wondering where the button went. Apple loves to move things around. They really do. One update it’s a little waveform icon, the next it’s tucked behind a plus sign.
It’s frustrating.
But once you get the hang of the iMessage audio system, it’s actually better than texting. It’s faster. It’s more personal. You don’t have to worry about autocorrect turning "See you soon" into "See you soup." We’ve all been there.
Where did the button go?
Back in the day, you just held down the little microphone icon in the text bar. Not anymore. If you’re on a modern version of iOS—anything from iOS 17 or iOS 18—you’ll notice the text box looks a bit emptier. Apple decided to clean up the interface, which basically means they hid everything behind the + (plus) button on the left side of the chat bar.
Tap that plus sign. You’ll see a list of apps like Camera, Photos, and Stickers. Look for Audio. It has a little red icon with a white waveform.
When you tap that, the recording starts immediately. No countdown. No "are you ready?" It just goes. You’ll see the waveform dancing at the bottom of the screen as you talk. If you mess up, there’s a little X on the left to trash it. If you’re happy with it, hit the blue arrow to send. Simple, right? Well, mostly.
The "Raise to Listen" trick people forget
There’s a feature buried in your settings that makes this whole process feel like magic, or at least like you’re using an old-school walkie-talkie. It’s called Raise to Listen.
If you get a voice message, you don’t actually have to press play and hold the phone to your ear like a weirdo while the audio blasts out of the bottom speaker for everyone in the elevator to hear. You just lift the phone to your ear—exactly like you’re taking a phone call—and it starts playing.
To make sure this is turned on, go to Settings > Messages and scroll down until you see "Raise to Listen." Toggle that on. It also works for sending. If you lift the phone to your ear while you’re in a message thread, you’ll hear a little "ding," and you can start recording. Lower the phone, and it gives you the option to send.
Why your messages keep disappearing (The 2-Minute Rule)
This is the biggest gripe people have when they send a voice message on iPhone. You send a heartfelt, three-minute update about your life, and then an hour later, it’s gone. Poof. Deleted.
Apple does this to save space on your phone. By default, iMessage is set to delete audio messages two minutes after you listen to them. It’s a space-saving measure from an era when iPhones only had 16GB of storage, but in 2026, it mostly just annoys people.
You have two ways to fix this:
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- The Individual Fix: After you send or receive a message, look right under the bubble. You’ll see a tiny word that says Keep. Tap it. Now that specific message is saved forever (or until you delete the whole thread).
- The Permanent Fix: Go to Settings > Messages. Scroll down to the "Audio Messages" section. Tap Expire. Change it from "After 2 Minutes" to Never.
Honestly, just set it to "Never." You can always delete them manually later if your storage gets full, but losing a precious recording of a loved one because of a default setting is a total bummer.
Transcription: Reading what you can’t hear
One of the coolest things Apple added recently is automatic transcription. If you’re in a meeting or a loud bar and someone sends you a voice note, you don’t have to wait to hear it. iOS automatically writes out a text version of the audio right underneath the recording.
It’s surprisingly accurate. It even handles "umms" and "ahhs" pretty well. But keep in mind, if the person is mumbling or there’s a ton of background noise, the transcript might look like word salad. It’s a great fallback, though, and it makes searching for old messages much easier. You can actually type a word into the search bar of the Messages app, and it will find voice notes where that word was spoken. That’s some serious tech.
Troubleshooting the "Quiet" Microphone
Sometimes you try to send a voice message on iPhone and the other person says they can't hear a thing. Or the waveform is just a flat line. Before you assume your phone is broken, check the bottom of your iPhone.
The microphone used for voice messages is usually the one near the charging port. If you’re holding your phone with your pinky finger curled under the bottom—the way most of us do to balance it—you might be covering the mic. Or, more likely, you’ve got a year’s worth of pocket lint jammed in there. Use a soft toothbrush to gently clean out the speaker and mic holes.
Also, check your Bluetooth. If your phone is connected to a pair of AirPods sitting in your gym bag in the other room, it’s trying to use their microphone, not the one in your hand.
Third-party apps vs. iMessage
We should talk about the competition for a second. WhatsApp and Telegram have been doing voice notes way longer than Apple. In those apps, you usually just hold the microphone icon and swipe up to "lock" the recording.
Apple’s version is a bit more integrated into the ecosystem, but it lacks some of the "fun" stuff. For example, Telegram lets you do "Video Notes" (the little circles). Apple’s version of that is basically just sending a video. But if you’re talking to other iPhone users, iMessage is the way to go because of that high-quality AAC encoding. It sounds way crisper than a standard cellular call.
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Actionable steps for better voice messaging
If you want to master this, stop treating it like a phone call and start treating it like a mini-podcast.
- Don't hold the phone to your mouth: Hold it about six inches away. If you’re too close, your "P" and "B" sounds will "pop" and hurt the listener's ears.
- Check the waveform: If you don't see the line moving while you talk, you're on mute or your mic is blocked. Stop talking and fix it before you waste five minutes.
- Use the 'Keep' button: Until you change your global settings, get in the habit of tapping 'Keep' on any message you don't want to lose.
- Pause if you need to: In the new interface, you can stop a recording, listen back to it, and then tap the plus sign on the waveform to keep recording from where you left off. You don't have to do it all in one take.
Go into your settings right now and change that expiration timer to "Never." It’s the single most important thing you can do to ensure your digital memories don't vanish into the ether. Once that's done, head into a chat, hit that plus sign, and try the Raise to Listen gesture. It feels weird at first, but it's the fastest way to communicate when your thumbs are tired.